Iran, Israel and Arab states took part in a secret meeting that laid the groundwork for international talks on banning nuclear weapons in the Middle East, diplomats said on Tuesday.

The meeting attended by representatives from Israel, Iran,
several Arab countries and the United States was held two
weeks ago, on October 21-22, in the Swiss village of Glion near
Montreux, diplomatic sources told Reuters.

"That they were there, the Israelis and Iran, is the main
thing," said an Arab diplomat.

However, Israeli representatives had no contact with the Iranian
side.

"There were no contacts between our representative and Arab or
Iranian representatives, not direct nor indirect. The meeting was
mainly technical," said an Israeli official speaking on
condition of anonymity.

The gathering was attended by 13-14 delegations, including the
Finnish Foreign Ministry Under-Secretary of State Jaakko Laajava
who is charged with organizing the Middle East conference to
promote nuclear disarmament.

According to a diplomatic source the discussions were "quite
constructive," while another meeting was scheduled for later
this month.

In May 2010 at a meeting of the 189 member nations of the Nuclear
Non-proliferation Treaty, the UN agreed to an Egyptian-proposed
plan for an international conference aimed at laying the
groundwork for talks banning WMD in the Middle East. Finland was
to host the conference planned to be convened in 2012,
co-sponsored by Russia, the United States and Britain. However
the meeting was called off in November 2012 and no new date has
been set yet.

Israel is believed to possess nuclear weapons; however the
country has never admitted having a nuclear arsenal, maintaining
the policy of “nuclear ambiguity.” It has been
widely criticized by Iran and the Arab states.

In turn, Israel together with the US and its allies suspects Iran
of developing weapons under the guise of a peaceful nuclear
program. Iran has denied the claims saying that it was
enriching uranium only for civilian energy.

Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani, elected in June, has been urging
a peaceful settlement of the issue. The country has held a number
of talks aimed at resolving the dispute with the five permanent
members of the UN Security Council and Germany.